Vietnamese doctors who reveal the sex of a foetus to parents could lose their licences to practise.
The proposal by the Ministry of Health is designed to address an imbalance in the number of boys to girls, says Duong Quoc Trong, deputy head of population and family planning. He was quoted by Vietnam News.
In May the United Nations Population Fund noted a steadily increasing sex ratio at birth in Vietnam. It's now 112 boys born for every 100 girls, compared with a usual ratio of 105 or 106 boys without sex selection.
Mr Trong is quoted as saying that it will not be easy to detect and punish doctors who reveal the sex of a foetus after an ultrasound scan, because they may just tell the parents and not make a written record.
"The reason behind the gender imbalance is parents' preference for having boys, who are likely to be family breadwinners," he says.
"So besides making an effort to change traditional beliefs it is important to increase women's role in society."
Vietnam's prime minister has already prohibited all practices of foetal sex determination and selection, according to the UN.
